Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 27, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba A11 pm Niu 2001 Rule of Law tested in Yugoslavia they seem strange if Yugoslavia Lobo Dan Milosevic and Chiles Gen eral Augusto Pinochet would appear to have Little in for his the chilean Exgene ral claims he overthrew a democratically elected government in 1973 to save his country from communist Yugoslavia former Strong a onetime committed maintains his controversial actions in the 1990s in Croatia and Kosovo were justified to prevent the virtual breakup of the yugoslav both plunged their nations into violence and unleashing class and ethnic Divi with hundreds of thousands flee ing for their lives and thousands methodically massacred or summarily both now face the possibility they could be prosecuted for human rights abuses and crimes against humanity allegedly committed while in in a further twist of the two former strongmen owe their present predicament to the collapse of communism a decade authoritarian leaders throughout the world formerly could repress their own people with relative it was a time when so called third world nations were courted assiduously by the competing communist and capitalist vying for support from dubious regimes whose Goodwill or cooperation served ideological or strategic despots of every Stripe were recipients of Bountiful helping them solidify their that they oppressed and butchered their own people was conveniently Over when Chiles marxist opposition Salvador squeaked in As president in Washington immediately ordered its embassy in Santiago to collaborate closely with the chilean military to oust which it did in resulting in Allendes death and the flight of chileans from the almost were killed or with the end of the cold War and the steady encroachment of instant global Media such Gross violations of Basic human rights could no longer be hidden from the prying eyes of the International the genocide in Rwanda in the mid 1990s and the ethnic cleansing blood Bath in Croatia and again in Kosovo during the last forced the United nations to take action against states that previously oppressed their citizens free from out Side intolerance International tribunals set up to try purported War criminals for crimes against humanity in Rwanda and the Balkans represented a newly found intolerance for the perpetrators of such Britain decision to detain Pinochet in ignoring the traditional practice of granting leaders of states Sovereign immunity for crimes committed in their own served As a warning to authoritarian leaders that henceforth their crimes May not go unpunished in the Post cold War now also vulnerable to this radically new approach to holding leaders responsible for their actions is Serbia formally indicted As a War just As Many chileans oppose prosecuting general Pinochet for the dark Days of 197390 when he was most serbs initially opposed handing Milosevic Over to a tribunal seen comprised essentially of states that declared War on Serbia during the period Kosovo was mired in ethnic this placed Yugoslavia new presi Vojislav in an awk Ward during his political struggle against Milosevic he repeat edly denounced violations of democratic principles and human rights notwithstanding his own demand for respecting the Rule of Kos Tunica is also a serb allowing an International tribunal to prosecute Milosevic was but in recent the new government has been hinting it might be prepared to hand Over Milosevic to the International tribunal after Serbia former strongman is first tried on other charges in his own despite efforts by Pinochet appoint de supreme court justices in Chile to undermine Legal proceedings against the judge Juan Guzman has proceeded with Pinochet prose cution now that a medical panel has found him fit to stand the ultimate Fate of both Milosevic and Pinochet has thus become a test Case for the Rule of Law in both Yugoslavia and for it will answer the vital question concerning what is to prevail political expediency or Justice Alberta Media love Klein despite tory incompetence Edmonton the big feature in the Globe and mail on the weekend was entitled wild Rose in full a paean to Albertas Prosperity that eventually gets around to the fact that the Klein tory government screwed up Energy deregulation so badly that it has been forced to hand out billion in rebates to keep the the rebate like the deregulation was so poorly conceived that Many credits actually exceed Energy with the result that the amount of the rebates exceeds the amount of in other As a result of soaring Energy Many albertan Are making Money by burning Gas and using elec the big features in both the Edmon ton Sun and the Edmonton were two Page spreads about Shamini Gate the controversy surrounding lib eral prime min ister Jean Chretien apparent attempt to buy votes in his Riding by abusing rules governing the use of Federal tax what the two stories have in of Are political leaders using tax dollars to help ensure their Politi Cal what is is that Alberta is at the Midway Point of a provincial which would appear to explain the Globe Story but also it might explain the local interest in it would seem that albertan cant get enough bad news about nor can turning whatever news they get about liberals into bad and this in the source of 14 of 16 Liberal seats in on for the Provin Cial led by former tory Nancy unveiled a plan to spend some million to Cut classroom sizes to 25 students from the highest in the amount of Money the liberals propose to spend is less than former Liberal Ralph Klein poured Down the Drain at the Swan Hills waste treatment Plant and on tenth the amount earmarked for rebates this year and the coverage of the Liberal plan was mostly negative and Skepi Klein visits with a Man dressed As the chinese god of Fortune during a Campaign appearance in the journal pointed out that this was the liberals second big announcement after its plan to fix health care and it appeared to have no Liberal rockets have yet to ignite any fireworks was the headline on a column by lome the journal editorial exam ined a Liberal plan to Cut the number of health districts from 17 ments income to nine by focus by y ing on kleins pretence comments to the effect that his that it government was looking at exactly the same idea and would perhaps produce a position paper some time after the the rabidly didst bother with the detail of the Liberal pro but went straight to Klein dutifully reporting All the Good things Ralph has done for education in the expectation is that nothing is going to change and there is Little the govern recent times and quoting him to the effect that it was nothing More than desperate Liberal i hate to sound like a broken Ralph but this is another exam ple of policy on the on the Fly com pared to what deregulation rebates the Sun also gloated that a lib eral stunt to shame Ralph by giving him an air line ticket to Ottawa to collect some of the wasted in defending Alliance Leader Stockwell Day had been turned on its Klein cashed the ticket and gave the Money to a Charity that Grants wishes to dying the bulk of the Story was devoted to Ralph rhapsody zing about the Good work the Charity a Sun columnist begins his piece with the following joke whats the differ ence Between Macbeth and her Campaign air plane the plane stops whining after it a in its Alberta has elected Only four different All for Long the latest tory reign has lasted 30 the expectation is that nothing is going to change and there is Little Evi the governments staggering incompetence that it the Only sign of Hope for change was a Little Story tucked away inside the journal reporting that support for the Klein government has fallen 14 Points to 40 per cent province wide compared to liberals at 17 per cent and new democrats at seven per Macbeth took Solace in the fact that the undecided had risen to 22 per the played the Story Small and a sign that perhaps the newspaper knows something Macbeth does Fol of f the free press welcomes letters from they must include the authors address and Telephone 1ui letters May be letters to the 1355 Mountain r2x fax email libraries for Blind need Public funding Val Werier writes regarding the Lack of books and information for those unable to read print big words for impaired the crib Library has been providing service to those canadians since 1906 As a free largely funded by charitable in the past 10 the crib spent Over million raised through charitable donations to provide both the books and playback machines free to Blind and visually impaired canadians who Are served directly or through other libraries in even Only about three to four per cent of published material is available in an alternate the Public Sec Tor spent approximately billion to billion on All types of Library ser vice for the general population in the past 10 Canada is unique among g7 countries in having no publicly funded nor nationally coordinated Library service for its print disabled the crib is converting the technologies of its production and distribution and its collections of Over books on cassettes rep resenting some 750 million print from analog to the projected costs Over seven years of million will most Likely be raised As charitable Access to information is a Basic human right recognized in article 19 of the Universal declaration of human Many countries have signed and adopted the United nations Standard rules on the equalization of opportunities for persons with Rule 5b applies specifically to Library services and accessible improved technologies will enhance the variety of books and but without greater Public sector commitment for Content building and distribution through publicly funded Library the information Gap will Only improve no one expects Blind for to Excel on less than five per cent of what is available to sighted Rosemary Kavanagh executive director crib Library for the Blind editorial scolds wrong people thank you for the school vote disastrous you Are giving a shocking situation due my wife and i think that it is a Citi Zens duty to play a part in the democratic we should vote when the occasion the Day came who do we vote for we knew nothing of the none of them had made themselves or their concerns known to we have heard of a whole list of concerns about schools and but what were the cur rent issues in View of our we Felt it would be irresponsible of us to vote under these we feel that you Are scolding the wrong peo Peter and Iona Warner Winnipeg graduated licence hardship to Many i am one month away from getting my learners driving licence and instead of being All excited and pumped up with i am drowned with worries and doubts about this graduated three years of driving with an adult by my Side passenger restrictions both my parents work and i have two younger which Means that if the graduated licence comes i wont be Able to drive As my Brothers Are not old enough to be left Home in other my parents could almost never come driving with me because some one needs to be there for my in sure that in not the Only one in this there Are Many divorced single or parents that Are simply too Busy to have time to go everywhere with their child for three years when Are the children from Homes like these going to get practice driving if parents dont let their children learn responsibility How will they make it As adults i can under stand the desire to protect your Chil Dren from perhaps making the same mistakes you made As a Young but think about at children Are already their own their parents have taught them Many but now its time for the child to take that knowledge and make some Deci Sions about responsibility and grow ing Jennifer Heinrichs Winnipeg Hometown crowd helped skating pair it was a great thrill for us to compete in in front of our Home town at the Bank of Montreal figure skating we would like to take this Opportunity to thank everyone who helped make this championship so special for thank you to the your Atten Tion and support throughout the week helped to keep us focused on our the coverage in the on television and the radio was a special thank you to those people who volunteered at the championships and donated their Volunteer hours to our skating we Haven met All of the people who volunteered on our but we want them to know How much we appreciate their their Volunteer hours will go a Long Way to help us to train for our new thank you to All the fans who came to Winnipeg Arena to sup port we have been fortunate to skate in Many different Noth ing compares to the crowd support we had in we Felt the emotion in the building and used that Energy in our original and free dance to move to the Bronze medal we have done it without you we have returned to Kitchener Waterloo to begin training for our new but will be coming Home to Winnipeg to perform at the James Assiniboia figure skating clubs annual ice at the James civic Centre on March we Hope to see some of you Lauren Leif Gislason 2001 Canadian Junior ice dance Bronze medallists Winnipeg doonesbury by Garry Trudeau ishkkjitin0ata of if youre ou6mpk youp0een 0e air playing by your House ;